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Alan Barrett has won the 2013 Network Information & Infrastructure (NII) Service Award. Mr Barrett who comes from South Africa won the award for his commitment to capacity building and Internet development in Africa. He has been involved in capacity building through both AfNOG and AFRINIC for many years and has been a key player in the African Internet community.

Barrett becomes the fifth winner of the Award. The award was presented to Mr Barrett by the convenor of AfNOG Dr. Nii Quaynor at the Taj Pamodzi Hotel during a gala dinner organised to celebrate the achievement of the Africa Internet Summit 2013 in Lusaka, Zambia.

Mr Barrett holds an M.Sc.Eng. from the University of Natal, Durban (now UKZN). In the late 1980s and early 1990s he was a lecturer in the Department of Electronic Engineering at UND. He was a co-founder of the first commercial ISP in South Africa, TICSA, which later became UUNET Internet Africa (now Verizon). He has been involved with several Internet-related organisations, including ISOC, AfNOG, and AFRINIC. He has served in the (NRO) and is currently the vice chair of the Address Supporting Organization (ASO).

The NI&I Service Award was set up in 2009 to reward individuals and/or organisations providing Internet working services and Infrastructure in Africa. The inaugural award was won by AFRINIC CEO Adiel Akplogan. Anne-Rachel Inne, the current AFRINIC COO, won the award in 2010 while Alice Munyua took it in 2011. In 2012, Alain Aina of AFRINIC won the award.

The 2013 NII Young Professional Award went to Patrick Okui of Uganda. Mr Okui has been involved in capacity building particularly through AfNOG and has contributed enormously to ensuring the organisation’s trainings are conducted successfully.